October 10, 2017 

III Meeting of the Financial Information Forum

The III Meeting of the CEMLA Financial Information Forum was held in Santiago, Chile on October 4 and 5, 2017 under the auspices of the Banco Central de Chile. 

The Financial Information Forum gathers Latin American and Caribbean financial authorities and international experts in charge of regulating, managing and using financial information for the design of financial stability oriented policies. The III Meeting had the participation of over 45 delegates from central banks, banking supervisory authorities, international organizations that debated: 1) the role of Central Balance Sheet Offices; 2) the progress made about Data Sharing; and 3) the interplay of Financial Inclusion and the relevant data for its measurement. 

The following summarizes the key messages that were exchanged at the Meeting:

1. Central balance sheet offices (CBSO) and other administrative registries are key to fully capture the complex and increasingly more interconnected financial and real economic sectors. In general, the use of data from the CBSO is relevant to have a better understanding of who, what and how respectively agents use financial flows within the economy, with this policymakers are better informed to address macrofinancial concerns that could pose risk to financial and monetary stability. For jurisdictions where the operation of a CBSO is still in discussion, a high-level commitment and the legal empowerment is mandatory to underpin the strategic role and public good features that this source of information displays.
2. Data sharing agenda promoted by the Data Gaps Initiative and its Inter-Agency Group, has demonstrated important relevance either for broad and narrow schemes where the sharing of financial information is crucial for financial stability aims. Due to the interconnectivity and interdependencies of a global economy, confidentiality and data protection arise as key aspects for authorities and stakeholders of the financial information new ecosystem, so the current inter-institutional arrangements and legal framework must be adapted, where possible, to strike the balance between the granularity and the anonymity of the financial information that is subject to data sharing schema.
3. Financial inclusion has proved its multi-dimensional nature and central banks, among other relevant financial authorities, are playing several roles in monitoring, regulating and promoting actions towards a more inclusive, while also prudent, financial sector. An important aspect of financial inclusion is the measurement of the phenomenon considering the various dimensions involved, i.e. supply and demand sides, including aspects such as educational efforts, payments and ICT infrastructure and other related policy actions. Thus, the generation, harmonization, compilation and analysis of financial inclusion related data should be within the top of the priorities for Latin American and Caribbean Central Banks, where the agenda of financial inclusion is enormously active.

 

 

Opening remarks
Mario Marcel, Governor, Central Bank of Chile

Keynote presentation 

• Lessons from the crisis for central bank statistics
  Aurel Schubert, Director General Statistics, ECB 

Session 1. Central Balance Sheet Data and other microdata sources

• New Developments in Central Balance Sheet Data Office at Banco de España
  Manuel Ortega – Head of Central Balance Sheet Data Office Division, Banco de España
• Measuring the Distribution of Household Wealth Using the Financial Accounts of the United States
  Susan McIntosh – Principal Economist and Group Manager, Financial Accounts Projects – Federal Reserve Board 
• Why do central banks need an in-house CBSO?
  Luis Teles Dias – Deputy Director, Statistics Department. Banco de Portugal 

Session 2. Data Sharing

International experience 

• Data sharing: what, why and how?
  Bruno Tissot – Head of Statistics and Research Support, BIS
• Data Sharing in Regulation: Experiences from the UK
  Sebastián de - Ramon – Technical Specialist, Prudential Policy Directorate. Bank of England 
• Data sharing at Banco de Portugal (because sharing starts at home…)
  Luis Teles Dias – Deputy Director, Statistics Department. Banco de Portugal 

Latin America and Caribbean Experience

• Sharing financial information: The case of Banco de Mexico
  Alejandro Gaytán – Banco de Mexico
• Data Sharing andStatistics Production in theCentral Bank of Colombia
  Carlos Varela - Technical and Economic Information Department Director Banco de la República de Colombia

Session 3. Financial Inclusion

• New Survey of Financial Competences
  Laura Hospido – Banco de España 
• Contribution of Statistics to Financial Inclusion
  Luis Figueroa – Deputy Superintendent of Regulation, Superintendency of Banks and Financial Institutions of Chile
• Financial Inclusion in Argentina – Objectives and challenges
  Estela del Pino – Banco Central de la Republica de Argentina
• Financial Inclusion in Paraguay
  Isidro Chavez – Banco Central del Paraguay